As an advisor across early education, K-12 education, and higher education policy, Mary C. Wall spent the past five years working in federal education policy in the Administration of President Barack Obama. Mary joined the Administration in 2009 as an intern for the White House Office of Cabinet Affairs, and transitioned from there into full-time work in the Office of Postsecondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education.

In her first tenure at the Department, she focused on the Administration’s efforts around college access, affordability, and completion, directly supporting the assistant secretary for postsecondary education in the administration of discretionary grant programs for college access and persistence and the Departments regulatory efforts in student financial aid policy. Mary left the Department in 2011 to work across education policy areas at the White House Domestic Policy Council.

At the Domestic Policy Council, her work entailed policy research, development, and strategy for all parts of the President’s education agenda, including the development and rollout of the Preschool for All proposal, and legislative proposals and executive actions as part of the President’s college cost and affordability agenda. In late 2013, Mary returned to the Department to serve as a Senior Policy Advisor for higher education, where her efforts have been focused on the Administration’s proposed postsecondary institution rating system, developing a $75 million First in the World higher education innovation fund, and working closely on the Department’s higher education regulatory and rulemaking agenda and administration of Federal Student Aid programs.

Prior to joining the Administration, Mary worked as an AmeriCorps volunteer teaching adults full-time as an educator and case manager at a long-term domestic violence shelter in Los Angeles. Mary is from the south shore of Massachusetts and holds her Bachelors of Arts in Political Science and Hispanic Studies from Boston College. She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in education leadership at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.